As Americans’ finances recovered from the Great Recession – spurred by the longest bull market, 50-year unemployment lows and an almost record-breaking expansion – they got dumber about money matters.
Just 34% could answer at least four out of five financial literacy questions correctly last year, down from 42% in 2009, according to the 2018 Financial Capability Study from FINRA Investor Education Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to financial education and empowerment. The figure was down from the 2012 and 2015 studies as well.
The money topics with the biggest drops in comprehension were inflation, risk and interest rates. Potential reasons for the declines may be that adults haven’t lived through enough cycles of higher and lower interest rates, or swings in inflation, which affect their mortgages, credit cards and yields in savings.
Read more at USA Today.
{Matzav.com}
